• X Feng, J J Liu, X Zhou, F H Song, X Y Yang, X S Chen, W Q Huang, L H Zhou, and J H Ye.
• Department of Anaesthesiology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, PR China.
• Br J Anaesth. 2012 Aug 1; 109 (2): 225-33.

BackgroundThe use of general anaesthetics in young children and infants has raised concerns regarding the adverse effects of these drugs on brain development. Sevoflurane might have harmful effects on the developing brain; however, these effects have not been well investigated.MethodsPostnatal day 7 (P7) Sprague-Dawley rats were continuously exposed to 2.3% sevoflurane for 6 h. We used the Fox battery test and Morris water maze (MWM) to examine subsequent neurobehavioural performance. Cleaved caspase-3 and neuronal nitric oxide synthase (nNOS) were quantified by immunoblotting, and the Nissl staining was used to observe the histopathological changes in the hippocampus.ResultsA single 6 h sevoflurane exposure at P7 rats resulted in increased cleaved caspase-3 expression and decreased nNOS levels in the hippocampus, and induced the loss of pyramidal neurones in the CA1 and CA3 subfields of the hippocampus at P7-8. These changes were accompanied by temporal retardation of sensorimotor reflexes. However, neither the Fox battery test at P1-21 nor the MWM test at P28-32 showed differences between the air- and sevoflurane-treated groups.ConclusionsAlthough early exposure to sevoflurane increases activated caspase-3 expression and neuronal loss and decreases nNOS in the neonatal hippocampus, it does not affect subsequent neurobehavioural performances in juvenile rats.

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